Cabinet okays 1,000 CNG buses

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

The Cabinet, in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, today approved the proposal of procurement of 1,000 low-floor CNG buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). 

The announcement was made by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in a press conference.

“Delhi has around 5,500 buses both DTC and cluster plying on the roads. The 1,000 lower-floor cluster buses will start coming from July itself and the full delivery would be completed by December,” said Sisodia.

He told the reporters that the tender for 1,000 electric buses had been done and would be opened on August 2. The entire fleet would be on roads by April 2020, starting from January, he said.

Of the 1,000 low-floor cluster buses, the Cabinet approved the proposal to award of concession to the successful bidders for 650 buses and the work would be awarded in 15 days. The tender for the rest of the 350 buses would be opened on July 19, said Sisodia.

These 1,000 low-floor cluster buses would start coming from December in a batch of 165 buses every month and would be completed by April 2020.

“The Cabinet’s decisions are a major boost for the public transport. The Capital will have 9,500 buses plying on the roads by May 2020 with an addition of 4,000 buses in the current fleet of Delhi’s public transport. The first batch of the buses will start coming in July 2019 and will continue till May 2020,” said Sisodia.

He said the proposal for the procurement of 1,000 CNG low-floor buses by the DTC was also approved by the Cabinet today. “These 1,000 buses will come on roads between January and May 2020,” he said.

Sisodia said, “The Cabinet approved the proposal to officially close down the Rajghat Coal Plant. The 45-acre plant will be converted into a solar park with the capacity of 5,000 KW. The government decided to close production at the coal based plant in 2015 as it was a major source of pollution. The government had been pushing for solar energy for quite some time now.”

‘Green drive’

The Cabinet also approved the proposal to officially close down the Rajghat Coal Plant. The 45-acre plant will be converted into a solar park with the capacity of 5,000 KW. The government has been pushing for solar energy for quite some time now. — Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM